100 FASTEST-GROWING COMPANIES 2015
ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2015
EV
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S
R
I
OUR F
FORTUNE.COM
ER
NIKE, CISCO,
MASTERCARD,
SABMILLER,
VODAFONE,
GOOGLE—
AND 45 OTHER
COMPANIES THAT
ARE DOING WELL
BY DOING GOOD.
By Erika Fry
LIST
WHOLE FOODS’ EVANGELIST FOR CAPITALISM By Beth Kowitt
A BILLIONAIRE TAKES ON THE WEALTH GAP By Brian Dumaine
EXCERPT
Doing Well by Doing Good
To take on the world’s toughest challenges in a sustainable way, companies are turning to
something familiar: the profit motive. Here, the true and best meaning of return on investment.
BY ALAN MURRAY
NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, capitalism is under attack. ¶ The economic system that won the great ideological
battle of the 20th century is facing a renewed challenge in the 21st. You can hear it in the passionate rhetoric
of Pope Francis in Bolivia and see it in the crowds cheering socialist Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. It even
made its way to the privileged heights of Aspen this summer, where the New York Times’ David Brooks reports
that columnist Anand Giridharadas accused NGO leaders of praising the rich “for all the good they do with
their philanthropy” while never challenging them “for the harm they do in their businesses.”
The Friedmanites and Randians among us will dismiss such attacks as another misguided mutiny from the loopy left.
The past two decades, they correctly point out, have delivered the greatest demonstration of capitalism’s benefits in the
history of man. A billion people were lifted from poverty, largely because Chinese leaders abandoned the straitjacket of
equality and allowed free markets to bloom.
But many smart business leaders sense that something bigger is afoot, and recognize that they ignore such public
currents at their peril. Technology and globalization, for all their benefits, have widened the wedge between rich and poor.
The financial crisis of 2007–08 has underscored the system’s roughest edges. The rising tide that once lifted all boats has
caused a leak.
Prodded by socially conscious customers and idealistic employees, as well as a skeptical public, businesses are searching
for new ways to prove capitalism’s power to rectify social ills. Whether it is John Mackey’s “conscious capitalism,” the “just
capital” of Paul Tudor Jones, Michael Porter’s “shared value capitalism,” Lynn Forester de Rothschild’s “inclusive capitalism,”
or Marc Benioff’s “compassionate capitalism,” the collective message is unambiguous: Your father’s capitalism needs
some modification.
Fortune’s new Change the World list is our contribution to this trend. It is meant to shine a spotlight on companies that have made significant progress in addressing major social problems as a part of their core business
strategy. It is based on our belief that capitalism should be not just tolerated but celebrated for its power to do good.
At a time when governments are flailing, its powers are needed more than ever.
CHANGE THE WORLD THE LIST
In doing this, we have enlisted the help of a small army of
Fortune’s friends and mentors. The list includes some of the
most thoughtful leaders we know in the corporate and nonprofit realms, as well as a number of scholars who bring both
perspective and insight to the public discourse on business.
We are particularly indebted to FSG, a nonprofit think tank
led by Mark Kramer and guided by Harvard professor Michael
Porter, for investing many hours of their valuable time collecting and vetting nominations for the list. They have been
pioneers in this effort, and we are lucky to have their assistance. While the editors of Fortune are ultimately responsible
for the final list, we couldn’t have done it without their expertise and effort.
A couple of caveats: We have made no effort here to rate
companies on their overall “goodness” or “social responsibility.”
That’s a task beyond our competence. We recognize that these
are large global companies with complex operations that may
be ameliorating one great global problem even as they contribute to another (and we will continue to encourage our reporters
to uncover the latter). Moreover, we acknowledge that some of
these companies have undertaken the actions highlighted here
in part to counter public criticism for past actions that are less
than laudable.
Our point is simply this: Business in pursuit of profit still
offers the best hope of addressing many of mankind’s most
deeply rooted problems. Companies that are making genuine
efforts to change the world for the better should be encouraged. The future of capitalism—and the future of mankind—
depends on it. WA ST E M A NAG E M E N T
U.S.
NO.
46
COURTESY OF WASTE MANAGEMENT
Rethinking recycling­to make it
actually work.
SECTOR
Industrials
COMPANY TYPE
Public
INDUSTRY
Waste Management
CEO
David P. Steiner
COUNTRY
U.S.
WEBSITE
www.wm.com
REVENUES ($ MILLIONS)
13.996
IMPACT SEGMENT
Environmental Impact
Workers sorting recyclable materials at Waste Management.
In 2001, Waste Management revolutionized its industry as the first major player to introduce single-stream recycling, which allows customers to skip the sorting
and throw all recyclables in one bin. But Americans have become increasingly lazy about throwing all sorts of things in their blue recycling bins, running up the
cost of processing. The company is now investing in educational campaigns to end the complacency and get trash out of the recycling stream, while renegotiating
contracts so that it can still make a profit in the new era. “Waste Management is going to recycle forever,” says CEO David Steiner.
METHODOLOGY: For Fortune’s first “Change the World” list, we’ve found 51 companies that have made a sizable impact on major global social or environmental problems as part of their competitive
strategy. This list is not meant to be a ranking of the overall “goodness” of companies or of their “social responsibility.” Big corporations are complex operations that affect the world in myriad ways.
The goal here is simply to shine a spotlight on instances where companies are doing good as part of their profit-making strategy, and to shed new light on the power of capitalism to improve the human
condition. ¶ To assemble our list, the editors of Fortune and FSG, a nonprofit social-impact consulting firm, reached out to dozens of business, academic, and nonprofit experts around the world, asking
for their recommendations. Fortune and a joint team from FSG and the Shared Value Initiative then vetted more than 200 nominees. In our evaluation, we considered four criteria: the degree of business
innovation involved, the measurable impact at scale on an important social challenge, the contribution of the shared-value activities to the company’s profitability and competitive advantage, and the
significance of the shared value effort to the overall business. A team of journalists from Fortune then further vetted each of the nominees and reported on their impact. The final list of 51 was selected
and ranked by the editors of Fortune based on the magazine’s own reporting and by the analysis provided. CREDITS: By Erika Fry with additional reporting by Scott Cendrowski, Jonathan Chew, Ryan Daly,
Brian Dumaine, Nina Easton, Claire Groden, Matt Heimer, Kia Kokalitcheva, Beth Kowitt, Michal Lev-Ram, Laura Lorenzetti, Brian O’Keefe, Scott Olster, Anne Vandermey, Phil Wahba, Vivienne Walt, Jen
Wieczner, and Claire Zillman.
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